


unto the second eve

by Crios (DreamyRequiem)



Series: green eco, staves, & rebellion [2]
Category: Jak and Daxter
Genre: Gen, birdge story between jak 2 and precursor legacy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24300208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamyRequiem/pseuds/Crios
Summary: It's the end of the start and Shiha is left floundering without support. Her friends (and Samos) are scattered and she wanders Haven City as the city continues its slow descent into chaos.Maybe, to find her way through the dark, she needs just a little spark.
Relationships: Daxter & Jak, Jak & Daxter & OFC, OFC & Keira Hagai, ofc & ocs
Series: green eco, staves, & rebellion [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1468600
Kudos: 4





	unto the second eve

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta`d
> 
> the start of the second story of the four part series! :3c most of this story will be entirely original and will have heavy effects on the story of jak 2.

Shiha kicked her legs through the cool water. It was nice and cold against her aching feet; she hadn't had a chance to do this in what felt like months.

...It actually was close to a couple months, actually. They had spent a rather long time crossing the land to the Citadel. They had gone there to help Daxter, yet...well, the two they sought weren't very helpful.

In fact, they were the opposite of helpful, considering they almost killed her. The reminder of that fight where she had been blasted around made her chest ache. It didn't hurt as bad as when they were heading home, but it would be a lie to say it didn't hurt at all.

Jak's burned arm was in a similar state, after all.

Tugging her arm, Shiha tilted her head at the horizon. Both of their injuries were almost healed, at least. Though, Shiha was pretty sure she'd still feel the sting of the blast for a while.

Shaking her head, Shiha pulled her feet out of the water and headed back up from the beach past her hut. Said hut she and Daxter shared had been left untouched and slightly worse for wear from the storms. Apparently two storms had come and gone since they first left.

At least none of the windows had been blown in, she thought as she looked at the hut from above. Less to clean, beyond the sand that no doubt slipped in and the dust from the months away.

Shiha sighed and continued into the village proper. Some of the buildings had patches on them from the aforementioned storms: They were sturdy patches that could easily last weeks. Thankfully they wouldn't have to, as she had overheard the mayor telling Samos and Sigurd that they'd be filling in the holes later that week.

Jak had apparently already volunteered to help out.

Helpful dork.

Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, Shiha jogged back up to Samos' hut. There was a large wooden structure with the metallic Precursor ring sitting in front of it. Keira was half inside the precursor zoomer, her legs waving in the air.

Was she...stuck? Shiha covered her mouth to hide her snort before she hurried up to help Keira out. "Watch it!," Shiha said as she pulled Keira out by her waist.

Keira struggled for a moment before letting Shiha pull her free. "Thanks," Keira said apologetically, rubbing at her waist. Her skin just above her short was rubbed red, no doubt from her trying to wiggle free.

"No problem." Shiha teased with a smiled. "Are you still working on this?"

She shook her head. "I was actually trying to get out because I was finished." Keira laughed wryly, tapping her wrench against the bronze metal of the precursor zoomer.

Oh, nice. Shiha tilted her head at it. "Then are we really going to use it to go through the ring?" She asked.

Keira put her wrench down to a pile of tools Shiha only just now noticed. "Mmm, sort of? I think Grandpa wants Jak and Daxter to check it out first, but...well, I'm sure those two won't let you stay behind." She nudged Shiha with a grin.

Shiha rolled her eyes lightly. Ugh, was Samos still hyper fixating on Jak (and Daxter)? "I know Jak channeling that white eco stuff was cool and all, but does he really need to focus on him so much?" It was weird. Like Samos was expecting something else to happen.

If something did happen during this trip, and he knew? Shiha was going to be so mad.

Internally shaking her head, Shiha sat down on the wooden steps up to Samos' part of the hut. "So where is everyone, anyway?" She asked.

"I think Grandpa went to speak with the other sages at the Citadel." Keira mused. "Something about pushing for more students? Considering what happened to the other students because of those two..."

They shared a moment of silence. The sages had told them what had happened--that the lucky students had been killed by the Sage Twins. The unlucky ones? Well, Shiha didn't want to think about it again.

Dark Eco can do some twisted things to a person's body.

It made people wary of agreeing to become a student where something so terrible had so recently happened. Maybe in a few years they'll get more people again, but until then it was probably going to be rather empty.

"So, when he, Jak, and Daxter all get back it'll be time for us to test out he ring and zoomer then?" Shiha asked, bypassing the moment of sorrow.

Keira grinned slightly. "Yeah, it will be. Though I'm telling you now that the zoomer absolutely works." She puffed out her chest, looking proud of herself.

She had fair reason to, considering it seemed to be a mix of old tech and precursor tech. That was pretty impressive as far as Shiha was concerned.

Shiha leaned back into the wooden stairs. "Well, you keep doing whatever you need to do before your grandpa and the others show up. I don't want to keep you from doing your thing."

Throwing her an amused look, Keira pulled away to return to her room, clearing intending on working on something else entirely. Well, everyone had to have a few different projects to work on, right?

Shiha opened one eye at the sound of Daxter's yelling. Jak was standing near the zoomer, the ottsel standing on Jak's shoulder as he furiously gestured at said zoomer. Whatever he was saying seemed important so Shiha forced herself to stand up.

"Wassup?" She yawned, leaning over the zoomer to peer in their faces.

Daxter nearly fell off Jak's shoulder. "Ack!" He clutched at the silver pauldron. "What the heck, Shiha?"

She wrinkled her nose at him. Why was he so shocked? "What did I do? I was just napping." Shiha puffed as she leaned on the precursor zoomer. Had they really not noticed her?

Jak's hands moved rapidly and she blinked her sleep from her eyes as she followed the movement. ^We were talking about the zoomer. I was worried about the space...^ He squinted at the zoomer's admittedly strange seating.

Following his gaze, she also eyeballed the seating. It looked like there might be enough room if they all squashed together, but... "Well, who all is coming? I thought it was us three and Keira only?" Shiha raised an eyebrow as she turned back to Jak.

Daxter groaned into his hands as Jak shook his head. "The old guy wants to come too. So basically all five us have to fit in. That." He gestured at the entirety of the zoomer.

Huh. She guessed that they could try to fit in that. "Where exactly do you plan to sit, Dax?" Shiha asked, shooting him a small smirk.

The ottsel huffed and flopped down on Jak's pauldron. He hesitated before he grumbled; "I wanted to sit on the actual seat again." He crossed his arms, looking frustrated by his admission.

"...Sorry." Shiha winced. She could get why he would want to: It's not like he'd really gotten to sit on the zoomer Keira had made for their journey at all. He'd just had to ride on Jak's shoulder throughout.

It probably left him more frustrated than Shiha could understand.

She offered her hands to Daxter. "Hey, look. I'm sorry that you won't get to actually sit down. But hey? Maybe I can help you make some chairs and beds in your size after this?" Shiha asked.

He hesitated before jumping from Jak's shoulder and climbing up to Shiha's shoulder. "Fine," He said, "I guess we can do that. Besides! Those chias will probably be waaay more comfortable than this precursor crap." Daxter faked a mocking sniff as he crossed his arms.

Clapping her hands with a grin, Shiha said, "Do we have anything that we need to do before the trip?" Who knew how long they'd be gone from Sandover this time around. She'd rather no one forgot anything they were supposed to.

^I don't have anything. Dax?^ Jak signed.

Daxter yawned and leaned against the side of Shiha's head. "Nope, not nothing here! But I am bored to _tears_. Can we just do something already?"

Jak and Shiha exchanged fond looks. Daxter was as impatient as always. "Let's go talk to Keira then. She might be done with her break, now." Turning back to Samos and Keira's hut, Shiha headed into Keira's workshop on the first floor.

She heard Jak trailing on her heels. Daxter shifted with her steps as they entered the workshop. Inside, Keira was tinkering with some sort of object. It looked like more precursor junk, in Shiha was being honest.

"Hey, Keira." Shiha chirped, leaning over the table.

Keira rolled her eyes. "Really? Shiha, you're on my blueprints." She pursed her lips unhappily as she tugged at some parchment underneath Shiha's elbows.

Sniffing delicately, Shiha raised her elbows. "How mean. Can you believe this, you two? Keira hates me." She dramatically brought a hand to her face, as if she was crying into it, as Daxter snickered.

With a groan, Keira took the blue prints. She frowned at the two little marks Shiha had left with her elbows. "Right, so, the machine should be working soon. I just...need to make sure the power connectors work." Keira put her blue prints back down on a different table.

"Are you going to test that, then?" Daxter asked, jumping from Shiha's shoulder to the table's surface.

Keira crossed her arms in thought. "I probably should--could you get Granddad for me, Jak?" She glanced upwards, to the ceiling.

He must be on the second floor, then. Jak nodded and headed towards the ramps up to the second floor. Once he was gone, Keira frowned hard and leaned on the table with her hands.

What's up with that? "You okay?" Shiha asked.

Keira leaned forward and buried her face in her hands, grumbling. Yeah, she definitely wasn't okay. "Yo, Keira, what's up?" Daxter asked, dangling a blank parchment over the edge of the table with his hand.

"Ugh." She heaved a big sigh. "Granddad has been a little bit obnoxious about my project. He keeps sticking his nose into it and its making me nervous, you know?"

Shiha exchanged a glanced with Daxter. "How do you mean?" She asked.

Rolling her shoulders back, Keira said, "Well, he's been...weird? I'm not sure why he's been acting the way he has. It's like...I don't know, he knows what's waiting for us. And he doesn't like it." She crossed her arms again, tapping her fingers against her elbow.

Okay, that would be concerning. Shiha couldn't blame her for getting nervous about that. But why and how would Samos know anything about that precursor zoomer thing? It had presumably been locked behind that door for centuries if not millennia.

"Do you think we shouldn't go through?" Shiha finally wondered. If they didn't, than maybe whatever Samos was worried about wouldn't happen. If they did...ugh, if he did know something was going to happen, why didn't he say anything to them?

Daxter was frowning. "And why didn't you say this when Jak was here?"

Oh, that was a good question.

Keira raised one finger. "Okay, first: Granddad will think it's strange that we suddenly changed our minds about going through. Two: Jak will still want to go no matter what. And three? Jak would think I'm just being anxious about it." She tilted her chin up, as if daring them to argue.

It's not like she was wrong. Jak did have a tendency to go along with what those older than him. Samos...well, he fit the bill perfectly, even if Jak did show annoyance with him here and there. Usually with his behavior towards Shiha and Daxter.

"Well, if we don't have a choice, then I guess we have to just...go ahead and go through. Maybe Samos is just being cautious?" Shiha winced because that was unlikely. The man had a tendency to keep things from them unless it was important enough to him.

She sighed. "Maybe you're right Shiha. Let's go and start things up." Keira swept out of her workshop, off to the precursor junk.

Daxter snorted and clambered up Shiha's shoulder. He settled before he said, "You sure about all that?"

Shiha shook her head as she slowly turned back towards the outside. "Nope. But I think I'm going to have to just trust that maybe things will go right for once," Shiha said as she walked out into the sunlight.

[linebreak]

"Okay, Keira? I think you're done with the tests." Shiha groaned, staring at her friend.

Keira herself was half under the precursor zoomer, testing the power constantly. This was perhaps the tenth time in the past thirty minutes Keira had tested said power. That wasn't counting the ridiculous number of time she'd tested other parts of the junk.

Wiggling out from under the zoomer, Keira flicked her googles back. "You can't be too careful." Keira shot back with a huff. "What if it blows while we try to fly it?"

^Then we fly by the seat of our pants, like always.^ Jak signed with a grin.

Both she and Shiha rolled their eyes at him before the former stood up. Keira tucked her hair behind her ears and said, "We should get going now, then. Everyone else ready?" She tilted her chin towards Shiha and the others.

Daxter groaned. "Ugh, we're going to have to squash together again." He leaned over to stare at the seating in the zoomer. It was fairly bare bones, looking more like a bench than a seat for a multi seat zoomer.

"We don't squash together that much." Shiha pointed out as Keira patted her hands across the surface of the zoomer. Honestly, she couldn't really think of any time where'd they squashed together off the top of her mind.

Keira snorted as Jak hopped down from the ramp leading to the second floor. "It's probably all the same for Daxter." She teased.

There was scattered laughter from Shiha and Jak while Daxter hmphed loudly. The ottsel leapt onto Jak's shoulder and elbowed the blond's head. "You guys all suck." He declared.

They all laughed, their joy shimmering like bubbles. Said bubbles were popped in an instant as Samos cleared his throat. They glanced at the green eco sage, as the latter raised an eyebrow at them.

"Are we going now?" He drawled, his annoyance clear in his stance and voice.

Ugh. Shiha rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, yeah. Time to go?" She glanced at the others, her chin tilted down to peer up at Jak, the closest to her.

Jak quirked a grin. ^Yeah. Take a seat, miss.^ He mimed a bow to her, gesturing towards the seating.

Shiha opened her mouth to pout at him and poke fun in return, yet she was interrupted by Keira slipping past her. "I'll gladly take a seat." She drawled with a small smirk.

Gah, she beat Shiha to it!

Both Jak and Daxter shared a laugh at Shiha's expense. She rolled her eyes at them before taking her own seat next to Keira. Daxter pouted as he leapt onto the top of the zoomer. "Hey, now, I wanted to sit by Keira!" He declared.

She sniffed at him and said, "Her other side is free."

Daxter made a face at her just as Samos squeezed into the space. Before Daxter could complain again, Jak flopped into the last space next to Shiha. That left the ottsel hovering over them, huffing and puffing about how unfair it all was.

Shiha sighed and reached over her head, snatching Daxter from the top of the zoomer. She plopped him down on one of her knees; the closest one to Keira. "It probably isn't safe for you to be up there while we fly."

He huffed. "Yeah, yeah." He crossed his arms and leaned back again Shiha's side. "Let's just go!"

Keira hummed and poked at the controls on front of her. To everyone's surprise, it didn't work, despite the power tests earlier showing everything was fine. "What's wrong...?" Keira muttered as she poked at it some more.

"Wait...Jak, can you touch it??" Daxter shifted to look at Jak.

Tilting his head, Jak nodded and reached across Shiha. He made a face as his cheek hit Shiha's staff. ^Shiha can you move that first?^ He signed, pulling back.

Shiha stuck her tongue out at him before shifting to pull her staff rod free and laying it down across everyone's laps. Before anyone could object to her doing that, Jak reached forward and ran his fingers across the controls. As always, the machinery crackled with energy as his fingers ran across it.

He pulled back and Keira grabbed the controls. She punched in something along the buttons and the massive precursor ring they had put together trembled to life. That was when everything quickly went terribly wrong.

Something massive and gray burst from within, shrieking. While she could hear there were words, Shiha couldn't make them out as she pressed her back against the zoomer. Smaller forms, similiar to the massive one clawing its way out of the ring, flew out from the ring around it

They were all glowing yellow.

Keira was yelling something in her ear, her hands flickering over the controls. It rumbled to life, though Shiha couldn't hear it over the ringing in her ears. All she could think was that they were in a lot of danger.

"Jak, do something!" Samos' shriek shook Shiha out of her shock. She instictively gripped her rod as tightly as she could. Before she could reprimend the man for putting that burden on Jak, the zoomer shook and Jak punched something on the control board.

With a yelp, the zoomer pulled up and started moving forward. It was slow but that hardly mattered as Keira stomped on the gas. The zoomer jerked for a split second before it was, well, zooming forward.

It shook as it clipped the top of the gray monster's head, with them being sent through the ring. Daxter was pressed against her stomach as he screamed on the top of his lungs. Keira's hands were shaking on the controls--or maybe the zoomer was just rattling so much it was shaking Keira. Shiha couldn't be sure.

What she could be sure of was that the strange tunnel beyond the ring was like nothing she'd seen before.

Previous tunnels had been an instant: Only a second passes and you're at your destination. Why would this particular ring take so long? Shiha's grip on her rod tightened until it hurt her knuckles. Something was about to do wrong.

"What's going on??" Shiha finally managed to get out. Her heart was thudding in her chest. That thing...If it got out, it'd kill everyone in the village.

Didn't they have to get back?

Both Jak and Keira were shaking their heads: Neither seemed to have any idea either. And if the situation wasn't already terrible, the zoomer started to break. Part of it was stripping away from the rush of the glowing tunnel.

Daxter started screaming again. On Keira's other side, Samos yelled. "Try and stick together!" Before any of them could question what that meant, his part of the zoomer broke and he vanished into the harsh blue light.

"Granddad!" Keira screamed.

What was happening _now_?! Shiha reached towards Keira. "Grab my staff--" She tried to get out, but just as she spoke, the zoomer broke apart beneath them. Keira and Jak both vanished almost instantly into the blue tunnel's light, just as Samos had.

She tried to keep a grip on Daxter, close as he had been to her. Yet just as Keira and Jak had, he slipped from her grasp. All she had now was her staff and her clothes and a fate to be lost here forever.

Or maybe that wasn't her fate. Maybe her actual fate was to become flat when she hit the ground, because the tunnel opened up and let her out; right out into the open sky. She screamed as she fell backwards, clutching her rod to her chest.

Flailing her legs, Shiha twisted around mid air and immediately wished she hadn't. Directly below her was what looked like a ghetto of water. Shiha cringed and nearly bit her tongue as she tried to slow her fall. She didn't know what she'd slow it with but--

Shiha didn't get much longer to think about it as she passed the buildings. In fact, as she hit water that felt like stone against her body, she blacked out.

You can't think if you aren't conscious, after all.


End file.
